Professional Marketing briefs: April 2012

GlaxoSmithKline and Daiichi ­Sankyo announced they will team up to create Japan's largest vaccine company. The joint effort will be a 50-50 partnership, with an initial investment of at least ¥100,000,000 ($1.2 million) in seed money, according to a GSK statement. The two companies will distribute vaccines for HPV, rotavirus and measles rubella, among others.

Columbia Laboratories is reducing its headcount by 10, leaving it with 14 employees. The announcement follows the FDA's rejection of the company's progesterone vaginal 8% gel, intended to reduce the risk of pre-term birth. An approval would have meant a $30 million commercial launch payment from Watson Pharmaceuticals, which has the rights to the gel.

Eli Lilly announced the opening of offices with 200 research and manufacturing jobs to fill at its Kinsale campus in County Cork, Ireland (above). The jobs are part of the company's €330 million ($435 million) investment in a campus currently dedicated to small-molecule manufacturing. The investment will expand the site's footprint so that it could be the launch pad for the pharmaceutical company's biologics pipeline.